Zili village Diaolou Cluster

Interior decor of Mingshi diaolou

Zilicun (Zili village) was founded by the Fang clan in the early nineteenth century. It comprises three sub villages set on a well irrigated plain in a loop on the west bank of the Zhenhai River. The village boasts a total of nine diaolou set amongst rice paddies and duck ponds.

Most diaolou were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to to guard against both bandits and periodic flooding. It s believed that about 3,000 were built originally, of these around 1,800 remain.